Girl, 6, shot at Mission chiropractic office

The victim's 14-year-old cousin apparently had the gun in his sweatshirt pocket when it went off. A bullet went through the girl’s leg. Although the girl’s injury was serious, the chiropractor, Andrew Bonci, said it was not life-threatening.

As Andrew Bonci treated a patient at his Mission chiropractic office Tuesday, a “huge bang” echoed from his waiting room.

Rushing to see what happened, Bonci encountered a 6-year-old girl with a bullet hole in her lower leg and her 14-year-old cousin saying again and again, “I’m sorry.”

“I told him to give me the gun,” Bonci recounted hours after the incident in the 6000 block of Martway Street left the girl hospitalized and her cousin in police custody.

The boy complied and then ran from the office while Bonci’s secretary called 911.

“He was scared,” Bonci said. “He wasn’t crying, but he knew he had erred.”

Police found the teen walking in the area about an hour later and took him to the Mission Police Department for questioning.

Bonci said there was a large hole in the pocket of the teen’s hooded sweatshirt, and it appeared the youth had been carrying the 9 mm handgun in the pocket when it discharged.

Although the girl’s injury was serious, Bonci said it was not life-threatening. An ambulance took her to Children’s Mercy Hospital. Her condition was not available Tuesday night.

The girl’s mother had come to the office with her three children and nephew, Bonci said, and were the only ones in the waiting room at the time. He said the bullet went through the girl’s leg, ricocheted off the floor and into a wall.

“Thankfully no one else was there,” he said.

Mission police said the youth remained in custody Tuesday night. Reports of the incident will be turned over to the Johnson County district attorney’s office to determine if charges will be filed.